Santarém, Portugal
Last week in Portugal. We'll visit Lisbon, Nazaré, and Santarém.
Thursday, June 23: Albufeira to Santarém
Another short drive today. This one was about three hours. We left the south of Portugal and headed North. This place is about an hour outside Lisbon in a smaller city. The Airbnb was about ten minutes outside the city center. Our neighbors were sheep and cows.
Friday, June 24: Caves in São Mamede
Found some neat cave tours (Grutas da Moeda) close to our place. We drove up and explored. Everyone enjoyed this one.
Some pictures from the evening walk.
Saturday, June 25: Lisbon and Sintra
Exploring Lisbon today. It's a pretty busy place. I have to remember to look up in European parking garages. Got lucky today!
We drove over to Sintra to check out the castles on the hill. Wound up taking a tuk-tuk ride, too.
Sunday, June 26: Around Santarém
Monday, June 27: Nazaré
We drove over to the coast to see Nazaré. It's home to the tallest waves on the planet. Some surfers have ridden 100' tall waves here. It wasn't too bad today but it was still pretty rough.
The tuk-tuk owner let Wesley drive back up the hill!
Back at home and we headed over to town for dinner. We explored the Jardim do Sol a bit too.
Tuesday, June 28: Return the car and hang out near Porto airport
Today's our last day in Portugal. We're getting up in the morning and flying to Stansted. I've got a conference in Brighton to attend so we're ending the trip in Littlehampton, England.
We drove a total of 4,030 kilometers this trip. That's 2,504 miles!
One last Francesinha for the road.
The guy at the cafe gave me some kind of brandy to "clean out my coffee cup".
Wednesday, June 29: Porto to Littlehampton, England
We got up early and piled in to a taxi. No way we were legal but it was only a mile. The car wouldn't start after we all crammed in. He messed with the brake, parking brake, gear shift, keys, everything. Just when I thought we were walking, it cranked up.
Ryanair is interesting. It's cheap but boy is it weird. Line, then line, then line, the on the plane. Oh well, we made it.
We loaded up the new car and headed south from Stansted. Stopped in Harlow at a little cafe for some breakfast. We arrived in Littlehampton around 2:15.
Katharine and I snuck out for dinner again. She fed the seagulls some chips.
Thursday, June 30: Brighton
I took the train to Brighton and attended Brighton Ruby with a friend. It was nice to see people in person again!
Friday, July 1: London to Atlanta to Cincinnati
Travel day. Gonna be a long one. We loaded up the van and drove an hour and 20 minutes to Heathrow. I dropped everyone off at the terminal and returned the van. I caught up with them at security. It took us about an hour from the end of the queue through the checkpoint.
Our flight was a bit delayed but nothing too major. We arrived in Atlanta on time.
We made it home around 10pm our time. Everyone was excited to be back. A great trip!